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Off the map performs at Kalamata Dance FestivalKalamata Greece

17.07 | FRI | 20:00 18.07 | SAT | 20:00

ΚALAMATA DANCE ΜΕGΑRΟΝ – STUDIO

Length: 60′

Set design by Wu Chi-Tsung

Profoundly poetic and of hypnotic beauty, the performance Off the Map creates a space for contemplation in which viewers are invited to get away from their sense of time and reality for a while and get in touch with their inner self.

In a setting reminiscent of the immaterial light of dawn and every so often changing into sky, clouds, sea, or night, the female body is moving slowly, precisely and steadily. There is a constant whisper mapping perhaps her inner monologue – probably what motivates her body to go “off the map”. Her body: embodying all the history of Far-Eastern physicality and its characteristic profound spirituality; yet, a contemporary body in a mediated environment. A body vulnerable yet vigorous, incorporating all the fragility of the human in a fluid, ever-changing post-industrial world: a metaphor for the human condition today.

Wen-Chi Su belongs to a younger generation of Taiwanese, and broadly Far-Eastern artists, who grew up in a society torn between the pervading influence of tradition and the rapid growth of technology, consequently opening up to the Western way of living. These two contradictory facets are united in her work in a purely organic and poetic way. As dance and technology do. In fact, her own career testifies to that: She studied New Media Art in Taipei and went on to get a PhD in Drama, Theatre and Performance at the University of Roehampton, London. She has been showing her work since 2001 in many countries in the East and West, gradually earning her place in major festivals. In 2005, she founded YiLab, an experimental group of new media and performance artists, her vehicle for creating pieces which explore the relationship between the body and new media, and combine dance and performance with installation art and technology.